Getting Ready for It’s Second Season, the Lakeview Amphitheater is Music For Tourism’s Ears

Published on April 6, 2017 at 5:24pm

By Steven Krainin SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney spoke at the Thursday Morning Roundtable. The Roundtable is a weekly event where members of the community can learn about what other members are doing. Mahoney used most of her time recapping what she addressed in her State of the County address.

Mahoney’s talk touched on several different topics including economic investment, the Syracuse city and Onondaga County relationship and tourism. On the topic of tourism, Mahoney touched upon the year and a half old amphitheater. “A 50 million dollar construction project put a lot of people to work,” Mahoney said. She added that construction jobs were not the only way the amphitheater benefitted the community. “Tourism is becoming a big important piece of our economy,” adding “enjoy a concert out there knowing this engine’s at work.”

“Tourism brings in almost $1 billion and it stays here and that’s a big chunk,” Nikita Jankowski, the Communications Director for Visit Syracuse, which promotes tourism to Onondaga County, said. “That’s nothing to sneeze at.”

For local hotels like the Jefferson Clinton Hotel in Armory Square, tourism from the amphitheater and the fair has changed their guest dynamics. “The last couple of years with all the expansions we are seeing an increase in a different type of guest coming into the area, so it’s more social,” Stephanie Pyle, Assistant General Manager of the Jefferson Clinton explained. “It’s been a positive impact, we’re seeing a different dynamic of people coming in versus what we saw five years ago.”

Jankowski says she’s hoping the amphitheater continues to rock on. “We want to blow last year’s numbers out of the water.”